Happy Halloween!

I didn't update on Friday because I didn't have internet all day yet AGAIN.
Then yesterday I was out pretty much all day.
Sorry everyone.
But...today is Halloween!
If you are at home reading this, then I'm telling you you need to go out and have some fun, right now!!
I am, that's for sure...after work, anyway!

I want to kill Flash

Sorry, but it's true.
My project was supposed to be due tomorrow, but Prof moved the due date to next week.
Thank GOD, because I haven't even started.
Well, actually I have started....
Can I please tell you the only thing I've done?
I added a frame at #360.
WOW....
OMG.

I don't even have an idea of what I want to do with my animation.
In fact, this is what my storyboard looks like as of now:


































How sad is that?
I'm hoping to at least come up with something by the time I am done here in 3 hours.
Geez.

• Change home page photo to this one

• Blur headers
  

It's Mock-up Time

I just created a link on my practice page for Comm3510 to this blog.


I started my design mock-ups today, and....finished them both.
I think.
I will definitely take more time to measure everything correctly, but for now I can't because these computers do not have Photoshop.
What kind of lab computers don't have Photoshop?
Seriously.

Anyway,
here are the JPG's of my mock-ups.

So I just linked to this blog from my FA 3000 splash page.
I figured that my old one was pretty boring and I just didn't feel like I had to update it.
Now that I am using a blog that is somewhat personal, I'll probably put more effort into updating.

Right now I am in class, and I'm trying to pay attention...
But I just hate trying to figure out Dreamweaver.
I would rather just memorize the HTML and the CSS because it seems a lot easier.
I figure that if I know how to pull code out of my own brain, then I may be able to learn Dreamweaver a lot easier in the future.

I am looking over the 3rd Project for this class...
http://fileserver.art.utah.edu/~mnovak/3000_fa09/projects.html
and I am thinking about some things that I could do my project on...
other than photography.
Maybe I'll do a site about Hong Kong.
That might be fun.


Oh yeah, I published my "site" that I mentioned before.
Let me refresh your memory:

It can be viewed at http://fs.finearts.utah.edu/~u0545583/playin/index.html

So I guess my D40 has had the last of it.
I was playing around with it today and I tried taking some pictures, but the shutter wouldn't close after being tripped.
How sad....if it really is gone for good, then I will have to say that the camera was great while it lasted.
I took some of my most favorite pictures with that camera...

Alright, it's a done deal, and...

this color scheme is not as great as I hoped it would be.

Ugh.

So yesterday after saying that I hated the color scheme of this template, I decided to try and change the colors.
Obviously, that hasn't happened yet.
Why?
Because Kuler was being stupid yesterday.
It seriously would not load, like, at all.
Anyway, I'm going to go back today, to see if I can get it to work.
I'll post another entry when I change the colors to keep record.
For right now, this is the color scheme I am thinking about:

I called it Victoria Harbour because I selected colors from a photo I had of the harbor:














At any rate, watch for my blog's colors to change sometime soon...
Probably within a few minutes.

...I actually really hate the background color on this template.
You know what else I hate?
How my Arts professor always goes way too fast when he is guiding our class through a tutorial.
We are learning Flash right now, and I absolutely hate it.
I guess that's just because I don't have the patience to learn it entirely...I wish that I knew how to use it already.
That, and also because I don't think that I will ever use Flash ever. I'm not a movie-maker.

So now I guess I will share my web design project site with everyone:
http://home.utah.edu/~u0545583
It's really simple but we are still learning and practicing coding and all that good stuff.

So lately I've been doing some new-media related stuff for the restaurant.
From creating a Facebook fan page to finally updating content on the website, I feel really good about helping the restaurant by using self-promotion on various social media networks.
Just today I opened a Twitter account for them, and we officially have one follower!
(Granted it's our sushi chef Jake, but still!)
I actually find it really fun to maintain the SM updates, and I'm constantly checking the FB fan page to see if we have any more fans (we've been stuck in the 70's for a while now).

Yesterday in web design we had a guest lecturer from ARUP, Kristen Deem who talked to our class about writing for the web.
You know, one of the things I love about my major is that everything is somehow connected.
I say that because coincidentally, I am taking a class called Writing for New Media (Comm 3640).
Anyhow, I took some notes from Kristen's lecture and even talked to her afterward for answers to some specific questions that I had about writing and updating content on the web.
She was really insightful about everything and I could definitely tell that she was very knowledgeable on the subject of 'strategic content'.

So basically, if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm really, really passionate about what I'm studying.
Like really, I absolutely LOVE Communications and the specific sequence that I've chosen.
I finally feel like I found something that truly interests me (other than photography, but we all know where that's taking me [nowhere - not in UTAH anyway {because everyone else here is a "photographer" as well}])
So, I figured, hey! why not get a feel for everything else and see if my combined skills will take me anywhere.

Other than that, I know this blog entry is pretty long, and it very well goes against everything I have been taught about writing for the web (LOL). I would like to say one last thing: my goals for this blog is that
1) I am going to try update every few days, if not everyday, and
2) I am going to accompany every post with a visual element; such as a screen-shot of a current project that I am working on, a recent photograph I've taken, or just cool and inspiring graphics in general.

With that said, here is my first accompanying visual:

This is the finished design of a home page that I have been playing around with on the side.
I created this using only HTML, CSS, and Photoshop-created images.
(Yes, the links really work!)
If I had the site published, I would totally share the link, but unfortunately, it's not =[
My attitude towards this? That there is always room for improvement.
I hope to learn everything there is to learn this semester, and use everything learned accordingly.
And so far, this is what I've learned =]

I've decided to start yet a new blog today.
I think it's because I'm quite hyped up from all this new media business that I've gotten myself into lately =]

I used to be an avid blogger; I would update my Xanga every day when the trend was popular.
That was oh, so many years ago, back when I was just a wee-teen.
Then, well, my lifestyle changed I suppose.
I got busier - started seeing and doing things - so I didn't really find the need to blog anymore.


I guess that's all I'll say for now.
We will see how long I can maintain this blog.
LOL.